One of the biggest challenges for architects and developers wanting to integrate solar power generation with building materials is aesthetics. Many building-integrated solar technologies are also somewhat inefficient, which means that large parts of a building have to be covered with solar energy-gathering materials to get significant benefits.

The Center for Architecture and Science, which is a research and development collaboration between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and architecture and engineering companies, including the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, thinks that its "Dynamic Solar Facade" can overcome these challenges.

The Dynamic Solar Facade is a glass frontage with rows of transparent, pyramid-shaped concentrators configured in a honeycomb pattern and hung on wires that move up and down, or twist side to side, to track the sun. Each concentrator has a lens that magnifies light nearly 500 times and directs it onto a solar cell made of gallium arsenide. The concentrators also bring light into the building while deflecting heat and glare, reducing the need for artificial light during the day.

The group claims that the Dynamic Solar Facade uses the sun’s light and heat with 60 to 80 percent efficiency.

The first full-scale demonstration project has just been installed  at the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems, which is scheduled to open in March. It comprises 64 concentrators in an 2.4-by-3-metres glass installation.

The Solar Facade is apparently stylish enough to satisfy the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.which plans to include it in a new student centre.
 

(Image: Centre for Architecture and Science)

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Conventional Portland cement is mostly composed of calcium silicates. Its production requires heating limestone and other ingredients to 1,450 degrees C, usually by burning fossil fuels. Making one ton of cement results in the emission of roughly one ton of CO2 - and in some cases much more.

Stanford Professor, Brent Constantz, has invented a new type of cement that is not only carbon neutral but sequesters carbon dioxide.

The details of the process are secret but, in essence, it mimics "marine cement", which is produced by coral when making their shells and reefs, taking the calcium and magnesium in seawater and using it to form carbonates at normal temperatures and pressures. "We are turning CO2 into carbonic acid and then making carbonate," Constantz says. "All we need is water and pollution."

Once dried, the cement can be used as a replacement for the Portland cement that is typically blended with rock and other material to make the concrete.

Professor Constantz claims that "green" cement will be about 10% cheaper to produce than Portland cement and sees the length of time regulators take to approve new building products as the main problem. As an interim measure that could be approved more quickly, he is proposing that green cement be mixed with Portland cement to make a carbon neutral compound. 

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The Beijing Olympic Village is now home to one of the world’s first photovoltaic/thermal hybrid building systems.

Mounted on the roof of one of the central buildings, which will be a service centre for athletes during the Olympics, the system produces both electricity and heat energy from the same surface area, generating 200-300 per cent more energy than a conventional photovoltaic system.  It combines air heating technology with photovoltaics to create a total energy solution in which the payback period is reduced and the CO2 displacement is maximized.

The panels also act as a racking system to the photovoltaic modules; removing the heat from the back of the modules and channeling it into the facility’s traditional heating system.   

The project was done by the SolarWall division of  Conserval Engineering, a Canadian company, working in partnership with Natural Resources Canada and the Olympic Village developer.

The building also has a conventional SolarWall air heating system, which is integrated into the architecturally unique front facade.

Beijing Olympic Village Athletes Service Centre

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American roofing company, Lumeta, has developed a stick-on solar panel technology which it says halves the labour needed for installations compared with conventional rack-mounted panels. The panels peak power generation is 380 watts in a typical installation.

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A new apartment block designed planned to be built "soon" in Dubai will use the wind to generate ten times as much power as it uses. The building, which has been designed by designed by Dynamic Architecture will have 48 floors, each being a single apartment which can be rotated independently..

According to Dynamic Architecture, "The building, which will be constantly in motion changing its shape, will be able to generate electric energy for itself as well as for other buildings. Forty-eight wind turbines fitted between each rotating floors as well as the solar panels positioned on the roof of the building will produce energy from wind and the sunlight, with no risk of pollution. The total energy produced by this inbuilt ‘powerhouse’ every year will be worth approximately seven million dollars.

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Almost half of our energy is consumed in buildings - mostly for lighting, heating and cooling. Changes that we make to our infrastructure and architecture can have a huge impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

Graph based on data from the Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy

Designing our activities and environment with the need to minimise energy can produce great energy saving without affecting our lifestyle. For example, in Germany buildings constructed to the "passivhaus" standard use 77% less energy for heating than the typical building in the UK and up to 95& less than the typical American building - yet there is no difference in comfort or amenities and the cost of construction is about the same as for a building constructed to traditional German standards. How It Works

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The Energy Plus office building to be located in the Gennevilliers area of Paris will be the worl’d greenest office. The 70,000 square metre, low-rise complex will house 5,000 workers but will consume no electricity other than that which it produces itself.

The building will generate electricity from a array of more solar panels than any other building currently in existance. Temperature will be controlled using a cutting-edge form of insulation and circulating water pumped from the Seine throughout the building.

The architects, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, say that the building will cost about 25 to 30% more than a conventional building to construct but this will easily be recouped through lower maintenance and running costs.

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